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More than 11,000 cormorants killed in South Carolina; no such season planned for Louisiana

cormorant

Three cormorants share a perch with a brown pelican. Cormorants are unpopular with anglers, who view them as competition for limited fish resources. A February season in South Carolina allowed hunters to target them.

South Carolina's Lakes Marion and Moultrie, collectively called Santee Cooper, have historically been known for producing big bass that anglers yank through lush mats of hydrilla. Lately, though, the lake has gained notoriety for fish-gobbling cormorants, which seem to outnumber the trophy largemouths.

The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources this year did something to try to change that, however. The agency opened a month-long cormorant season late this winter that proved remarkably popular with hunters.

According to submitted reports from those who participated, the season resulted in 11,653 dead cormorants, nearly half the estimated population on the two lakes. More than 1,000 hunters participated, even though they first had to attend a training program and agree to strict regulations.

Despite the success of the program, hunters shouldn't expect to see a similar system in Louisiana anytime soon, according to Mike Wood of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. The birds, he said, just don't have the impact on fish numbers that many anglers assume they do.

"They are very efficient fish predators, and there may be some occasions when they're a significant problem -- most notably hatchery situations when you have fish bunched up," Wood said. "In terms of a large impoundment, probably not so much."

When anglers see a cormorant dip below the surface and then emerge with a fish in its beak, it's almost always a baitfish, Wood said.

"We did a food habit study on cormorants a few years back at Toledo Bend," he said. "We found they're not much of a predator on crappie. They primarily are eating forage fish, like shad, and they don't necessarily eat them to the extent that they're much of a competitor for other fish."

DDT contamination knocked back the population of the birds in the 1960s, and hunting them was illegal. Cormorant numbers have rebounded substantially in recent years, however, due in part to the explosion of catfish and crawfish farms throughout the South.

That led the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to begin issuing permits to states that wanted to reduce their cormorant numbers. In most other states, those programs allowed wildlife officers and Native Americans to shoot the birds, but South Carolina decided to open a season for the general hunting public.

In addition to questioning the efficacy of the hunts, Wood said he has issues with the guidelines of the South Carolina season.

"It seems that now they're considering not letting hunters shoot them out of moving boats. That would be something we'd start with," he said. "It sounds like a ton of fun, but it's probably a little dangerous having guys in boats running up and down the lakes with loaded shotguns.

"We would never allow that to start with, so it's probably kind of dull just sitting there waiting for one to swim by."

According to South Carolina's The State newspaper, a proviso in this year's budget requires the DNR to open another cormorant season in 2015. The agency is currently determining what regulations will be part of that season, if it occurs.